Brief strategic therapy is a form of psychotherapy created by Paul Watzlawick and Giorgio Nardone, and which is characterized by helping people to adopt new perspectives on the problem that the patient suffers and, from there, helping them apply strategies that are qualitatively different from the previous ones. that he used until that moment to deal with the situation.
Its simplicity and short duration, among other aspects, make this option the favorite of many psychotherapists and people seeking psychology services.
In this article we will talk about the main benefits of brief strategic therapy and the way in which these have implications for the patient’s quality of life.
The main benefits and advantages of brief strategic therapy
The qualities of strategic brief therapy that make this approach especially valuable are as follows.
1. It is a short-term therapeutic intervention
The first benefit is quite obvious: as its name suggests, brief strategic therapy is short-lived. And this form of psychological intervention It was conceived from the beginning as a process that can be carried out in a few weeks to prevent time from passing and patients becoming frustrated (something that, unfortunately, causes some patients to stop going to the psychologist and retrace the entire journey with the therapist).
On the other hand, brief strategic therapy is the opposite of those who see therapy as practically a lifestyle, attending their weekly session for years (on many occasions without actually needing to go to the psychologist), something that has to do with which we will see below.
2. Therapy always focuses on the problem
Another characteristic of brief strategic therapy that makes it interesting for many people is that it places a lot of emphasis on very well defining the problem to be addressed, the origin of the person’s discomfort. That is, it does not focus on the symptoms or the different manifestations of what negatively affects the patient, but on what has triggered the general situation that the person wants to get out of.
That is why we look for ways to reformulate what happened to analyze it through a different strategy, something that avoids having to constantly fight against the same problem as it transforms or manifests itself in different ways or in other contexts.
3. Its simplicity makes it easy to follow
In the psychotherapy process, Patients do not need to face a large number of challenges or memorize many theoretical aspects of what happens to them or what they should do, which makes the experience more bearable and the chances of becoming frustrated decrease.
4. Therapy focuses on the present
Brief strategic therapy is based on the idea that the majority of problems that bring the person to the psychologist’s consultation are there because the person, without realizing it, maintains active behavioral dynamics in the present that keep the cause of their problem afloat. discomfort (although this does not mean that she is to blame for the emotional pain she suffers). Therefore, this type of psychotherapy focuses on the present, from the idea that it is not necessary to know the past origin of the problem, but rather its manifestation in the here and now. This makes the process simpler and more accessible, since not everyone is in a position to understand exactly how everything came about.
5. The effects are long-lasting because the vicious cycle of the problem is broken
As we saw before, strategic brief therapy offers a way to break the vicious cycle in which the person is participating (sometimes without realizing it). Because of this, a qualitative change occurs in the person’s quality of life and not only quantitative, which helps prevent the problem from being reborn from its ashes.
You may be interested: “Rumination: the annoying vicious circle of thought”
6. It is effective in the treatment of disorders and non-psychopathological problems
As brief strategic therapy has not been designed thinking about the reason for consultation in terms of symptoms and mental disorders Its use is not limited to people with a specific type of psychopathology, and it is very versatile when it comes to being applied to various problems. Therefore, it is useful when the objective is to face such common experiences as low self-esteem, fear of speaking in public, lack of time organization in studies, etc.
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